Devices are known that facilitate manual hammering of staples into adjacent bone portions, such as is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,263,903. U.S. Pat No. 4,414,967 filed June 22, 1981, teaches the use of a stapler that rapidly and reproducibly imparts a controlled amount of energy to propel a staple into bone portions and which provides many advantages over devices of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,263,903. The teachings in that application, however, were based on tests with a commercially available manually actuatable staple gun (i.e., the Model T-50 Staple Gun Tacker Manufactured by Arrow Manufacturing Co.) that is impractical for surgical use.